Just Don't Move
by wisdom-of-me
Summary: With numb fingers and melting snow trickling down the back of his shirt Dave Strider encounters someone he would rather have not and is forced to face the harsh reality of this shitty game.


1…

2…

3…-

"WRAGH!"

Dave gave an almighty scream as he leapt for the frog. The poor frog, who had been silently minding its own business, jumped nimbly to the side, avoiding capture once more and sending Dave headfirst into the snow.

For the last few hours Dave had been helping Jade in her quest to find the great frog-universe thing that would give the giant croak or some shit Dave couldn't care enough to remember. He should probably try, it at least sounded somewhat important… Maybe he'd ask Jade why exactly they were doing this again once he caught this dumb orange toad.

Dave pulled himself from the snowdrift and sat down. It didn't really matter where at this point, he was basically dripping from all the times he'd been dunked in the snow while chasing this stupid frog anyway, so the snow no longer bothered him, aside from the teeth chattering cold that is.

Dave sniffed and wiped the moister from his shades. He was probably coming down with something, he thought as he rubbed his frozen nose. Or he would be if it wasn't for the fact that he was a Strider and Striders were unable to catch any kind of- His train of thought was lost as something flashed in the corner of his eye, causing him to leap to his feet and spin around.

Only to be sent back to the ground by his own fist.

He had not expected that.

"You idiot!" the person, himself, yelled. "How could you? It's your fault she's dead! Yours! It's- I'm…"

Dave blinked in confusion at the unusually angry voice and stared up at… Himself. A self that wasn't looking all too good at that, Dave noted. The Doomed Dave that stood before him was not in good nick. His clothing was torn, and blood seeped beneath his shirt, not to mention the nasty bruise that was forming under his right eye. He was panting heavily after his unironically angry words and- Holy shit, was that a stab wound through his stomach?!

But Dave had seen all that before, his doomed selves never seemed to be completely whole when they came back to warn him of the future. But never had he seen one look so desperate, or sound so angry. Had he ever been this angry before? Frustrated at his Bro, yes, but never like this.

Crap, was he crying?!

"She's dead!" he roared again. "She died because we failed her!"

The Doomed Dave's knees gave way and he fell to the ground. He tried to muffle the sobs that shook his body, but nothing he did seemed to stop them.

"Uh… Are you okay- Wait no, don't answer that," Dave backpedalled quickly when he saw the Doomed Dave try to get up, probably to hit him again. "Could you at least tell me what went wrong?"

The Doomed Dave inhaled and then started coughing, blood splattering the snow around him, before trying to sit up.

"Jack," he gasped after a moment as he settled with his back against a tree. "Jack showed up and," Dave couldn't tell if the break in his speech was because his Doomed self was trying to cough up his lungs or choke down another bout of sobs. "Jade and I- Us," he corrected quickly as he looked to his Alpha counterpart. "We fought him and," more blood splattered against the white snow. "He teleported her bullets and I dodged through time but- But they hit her while I wasn't there and she died. She died because of me!"

Dave was beginning to realise why this guy had abandoned his cool like a week old fish.

He was the reason Jade was dead.

"What do you want me to do?" Dave asked, anxiety slowly creeping into his voice. "Where- When did Jack show up? I'll get Jade outta here."

But the Doomed Dave shook his head even as the words left his lips.

"Can't, he's almost here. You just," he coughed up something fierce, and for a moment Dave was worried that he wouldn't have a chance to recover

But he did.

"Just, don't move."

And then he was dead.

Dave stared at his (hopefully not) future self and a rare amount of worry crept onto his normally expressionless face. He couldn't let that future occur. Never. It could never happen.

"Dave?" a clear voice rang through the woods. "Dave? Are you still even here?"

Dave cursed under his breath as he stared at the- His body. He couldn't let her see this. Jade didn't need to know about this side of his powers.

And hopefully she would never find out.

"Dave?"

Dave grumbled under his breath and pushed the still warm body down flat against the base of the tree. Then he jumped, grabbing hold of one of the low branches and shook. A nice heavy load of snow fell to the ground, covering the body of the Dead Dave, and falling down the back of Dave's shirt. Brrr.

"Seriously Dave"-

"Jeez, don't get your knickers in a twist Harley, I'm over here. Perfectly fine as always."

Dave quickly scuffed his foot over the bloodied snow until the red stain was barely visible. Then, with moments to spare he swooped upon the orange frog that had hopped closer during the kerfuffle and the blue frog that was perched next to it. Because more frogs meant a better world or something. Man he should probably listen to the words Jade spoke more often and not just the sound of her voice.

Dave breathed out a sigh of relief and managed to return his usual deadpan expression to his face just in time. When he looked up he could already see Jade's mane of black hair bobbing through the trees, trying to make her way towards him. And going in the wrong direction.

"Over here Harley," Dave said as he walked up to meet her, frogs in hand. "For a crazy wild girl your tracking skills are pretty poor."

At the sound of his voice Jade spun around, a grin already spreading across her lips as she held up her own red frog.

"Obviously they're not as good as yours, right cool kid?" she said, soft laughter hanging on to each of her words.

Damn, he was screwed.

"Now you're learning Harley," Dave said, his panic already beginning to retreat to the back of his mind. "Striders have been known to track their prey from one side of the world to the other. We're born with the innate ability to stalk anything"-

Jade cut him off with a giggle.

"And is that why you've been chasing a single frog for the last two hours?" she asked with a coy smile.

"Hey," Dave defended himself, holding up his two frogs. "I managed to catch his friend as well"-

But then Dave froze.

So did his breathing.

Was it really so soon?

"What is it?" Jade asked and went to follow his line of sight. "What are you looking at…"

Her voice trailed off as she turned and Dave wished desperately that he hadn't frozen, that he hadn't brought her attention to the beast that was crossing the horizon. Her shoulders went ridged and there was a pause in her normally even breath. She dropped the frog that she had spent so long trying to catch and pulled her gun from her strife deck, starting towards the monster that had hurt her so much already.

Dave wanted to pull her back, to pull her back to him and run, but it was too late now. His fate was sealed.

"Bad dog," Jade murmured as Dave dropped his own pair of frogs and stepped to follow her. "Worst enemy."

Dave was anxious. No, he was fucking scared. He didn't want to die, just like another Dave that hadn't made the cut. But, as he watched Jade square her shoulders and become the jungle warrior he knew she could be, he guessed that there were worst ways to go then sacrificing yourself for the girl you like.

* * *

 **Yay! My first Homestuck story! This is kinda old, I posted it on my Tumblr ages ago, but I was thinking 'why not put it on too?' I hope you guys liked it! I hope to write more stories for Homestuck in the future.**


End file.
